A Sack to Carry Stuff

I've been on a hiatus for a while. Work has been demanding and we've been planning a vacation. 

I finally got some time behind the sewing machine and made a couple coloring bags for a friend's boys. The idea is that you stick your crayons in the front pockets and store your coloring books in the bag. But really, you can put whatever you want in them. Knowing the two boys that will be receiving these bags, I'm guessing they'll carry rocks and trains at some point. 

Never mind the Cat in the Hat's hand sticking out of bag #2. 

I think my stitches are getting pretty good, if I do say so myself.

A Latch Board for E

When I saw this latch board on Young House Love, I knew I had to make one for E. I forgot about it for a while, but when I found myself browsing through Home Depot, I remembered the plan.

I bought my supplies from memory, but I realize now that I made mine quite a bit bigger. My gadgets are more spread out. I got a 2ftx2ft square of plywood for about $6. Each latch/gadget was a couple bucks each. Along with latches, I have a zipper since E has recently gotten the hang of unzipping his jacket. I also have two tap lights, three casters and one of those boing-y door stopper things.

I don't have the luxury of a playroom so I had to make it pretty enough to keep in the living room. I prettified it with some teal spray paint, then I added stickers, scrapbook paper bunting, some washi tape and Mod Podged the whole thing.

He likes it a lot-- especially the door stopper and the lights. It took him about 2 minutes to figure out that the tap lights would come off if he twists them (that's how you change the batteries.) I think he's over the novelty of removing the lights though, so we might be in the clear on that one. It's pretty likely that he's going to rip the zipper off because it's attached with hot glue. You can even see it gaping in the picture below. I'll probably need to fix it up a bit-- the lights and the zipper, but for now it's proving to be quite fun.

Gifts for Kidz

Both of these are things I've already written about. However, I've honed my crafting skills a bit and these are both better than the previous versions.

I made these for my friend's 5 and 4 year old.

A tutu for Maddie:

This one is an improvement on the one I made for my niece because it has an elastic waist. 

And a robot crayon roll for Cameron: 

This is an improvement just because I can sew a little better. Plus, I actually measured this one so it holds an 8-pack of crayons. These crayons, by the way, are not the ones I gave Cameron. These are just a terrible baby-chewed collection that I was able to find around the house.

Bird Feeders

I had a busy crafty weekend. I have lots of fun things to share. Up first are these bird feeders that I 100% copy-catted from eighteen25. I even loved their stars so much that I made stars too.

The recipe was easy peasy-- bird seed and gelatin.

The mixture was crazy-sticky so you should take that into consideration if you're making these with kids. There's no way I would've let 19 month old E put his hands on this.

The recipe, which is for one envelope of gelatin and 3/4 cup bird seed, only made three stars.

I hung one on the very dead bush right outside the front door. E and Laika like to sit at the front door and watch traffic, birds, squirrels and people/dogs walking by. So, I hoped this might help attract some extra wildlife. It almost blends in. I'm not sure the birds know it's there.

The other two are in a tree just outside the dining room window, where E sits for meals.

Or should I say, the other two were in that tree. See that gray sky? It turned into rain the next day and these two washed out of the tree. The one in the front is still hanging around... possibly because it's actually not hanging, but more like laying in the branches. I have yet to see any birds. I'll make some more once the rainy season is over.

Big Sister/Big Brother Gift

Last summer, a very good friend had her third kiddo. Along with a big ol' lasagna for the family, I made a super special package for the two older kids.

First, they each got a picture book and some crayons. Inside each one, it says "Draw a picture of..." and there's a noun at the bottom of each page... Mommy, Daddy, New Baby... cat, dog, airplane...

Next, I picked up some fabric markers and plain white onesies. I included the directions: "Make a onesie for Baby Jacob."

And last, a bunch of outside stuff-- glow-in-the-dark stuff, silly string and bubbles. My directions, "Play outside." What that really means? "Get out of Mommy's hair for a bit, mmkay?" :)

And, the final product, in a cute box that I picked up on clearance:

Crayon Roll

So, there was no way I was staying away from my anniversary sewing machine until my class next weekend. Mr. S and I read the manual and threaded that sucka up. I sewed some really bad lines and then decided to give something useful a try. Enter the crayon roll. I've seen plenty of them on Etsy. Seemed easy enough.

Sewing requires some thinking. How do you need to fold things? Do you sew outside in or inside out? So after a little thinking, I figured it out. And here you have it. It's not perfect by any means. I still need to figure out a few things. Still, I love it. I'm going to toss it in my purse so I have crayons for E anytime we're out. Yay!

All rolled up

Felt Board

I've been working on a project. A very much ongoing project that may just go on forever. I made E a felt board. I bought the biggest (cheap) canvas I could fine at Hobby Lobby, which happened to be 30"x40" and was $16 after my 40% coupon. I cut and hand sewed a grassy hill (green felt) onto a blue sky (blue felt) and then stretched and stapled the whole thing to the canvas. Tada! Felt board. That part was easy, albeit a bit time consuming. That part is also done.

It's all the "game pieces", if you will, that might keep me cutting and sewing felt for the rest of my days. I've been finding inspiration everywhere to make little scenes for E to play with. As soon as I made the first couple pieces, I let him have access to the board. I admit, I typically wait until I'm completely finished with a project before letting destroy...er... play with it. So, it was hard to hand over.

For the past couple weeks, he'd wake up in the morning or from a nap and discover what new pieces are on the board. I'm sure I'll revisit this post many times, but here's what I have so far.

The full scene (minus the third piece of road, which has already disappeared):

The slightly flower-ish looking sun. But you know it's a sun because it's wearing sunglasses. right? 

The peacefully weepy cloud and the airplane. 

Dinosaurs strolling down the road. Makes perfect sense, right? Houses, airplanes, dinosaurs. It happened.

The house (I need to make at least one more), with an apple and lemon tree, and a pond with ducks and a frog next to a coniferous forest of three. 

And here's a close-up of that pond. It's really my favorite part. Well, it might be a tie between the pond and the rain cloud.

If you've never experienced one of these boards, it all works by friction. Nothing is stuck all that well but it stays in place well enough for imagination time. In fact, because nothing sticks that well, a good slap to the canvas knocks most of it off. I decided it would be HI-larious to bang on the canvas and yell "EARTHQUAKE!" after E had set everything up. He did not think it was funny. In fact, he cried. Maybe he's not the little destroyer I think he is. 

On my near future to-do list: 

• One more house
• More animals/dinos
• People
• A rocketship
• A bus
• Couple cars/trucks
• Another piece of road
• A rainbow
• Lightning? 
• More clouds

Rain Stick

Our office is moving to a different building in the next couple months. Last Friday was slow so I was doing a little tidying up to get ready for the move. Stashed way under my desk, I found a long mailing tube that someone had sent to me. 

I immediately flashed back to this list of the 5 Best Toys of All Time. Could it be true? Did I just find the #4 best toy of all time under my desk? I mean, E has played with toilet paper tubes, paper towel tubes and even a wrapping paper tube, but this was taking it to a whole new level. How lucky is E?! 

But then, I started thinking even more creatively. What about a rain stick? Surprisingly, it wasn't something I had pinned on Pinterest. It was something I had just seen in passing while surfing the interwebs. I actually had to re-search for it and find a site with a good how-to. This one from Mama Scout seemed the most like what I was looking for. 

Here's how mine went...

My supplies included the coveted mailing tube, a crap ton of nails (I think I used a total of 80), something to make the noise-- I used beans and also (not pictured) rice, something to pretty it up (mine is fabric wrapped). 

First, I hammered. And hammered and hammered. The cardboard mailing tube is perfect for the nail approach (verses some of the other approaches I've seen using tooth picks or skewers) because it's easy to hammer into, but quite sturdy. I made circles around the tube with nails, trying to stagger them as much as possible. I think I used 80 nails, and I could've used another box if I had it. 

This certainly does not look like a toddler toy, right? No worries, I took some safety precautions. I wrapped the whole tube in packing tape to keep the nails in place-- and add an extra layer of protection between the nails and E's curious fingers. 

Next came the filler. I started with just beans but I needed a softer sound so I added some rice. It's really a trial and error kind of thing. You just need to test it out until you find the sound you like. I admit, I wish I had used more nails because I feel like my fillings fall a little too fast. I was just too dang excited to complete it to run out for another box of nails. It's sort of rain stick-y but it's really more like an oddly shaped maraca. Whatever. It makes noise and that's the #1 feature to an 18 month old. 

Then, I wrapped the whole thing in fabric, hot gluing as I went. I used three patterns cut into about 1 inch strips. The hot gluing was far more dangerous for Mama than the nails were. If I was inclined to commit a crime, Saturday would've been the day because I'm pretty sure I burned all my fingerprints off. Whoever allowed me to purchase a hot glue gun should be fired! 

Sorry for that tangent but my fingers were hurtin'! I also hot glued the plastic end caps on with the fabric tucked underneath them. And, I added a little extra pretty by adding a few ribbons on each end an in the middle. Mr. S thinks it's a little girly. Maybe it is. Who cares? 

Could a very curious, very determined kid tear this apart and gain access to 80 nails and around a cup of choking hazards (beans)? Yeah, probably, but he would need be unusually determined. E's not that curious, or that determined and certainly doesn't have that much patience. 

Here it is all prettied up. 

E likes it but he doesn't quite understand that he needs to flip it over to make it make the noise again. So he just holds it upright with the beans in the bottom and whines because it's not making noise. So, until he catches on, it really is a homemade toy fail. I mean, you definitely don't want to make toys that cause you and your kids extra frustration. Soon enough though, I know he'll get it and enjoy making all that noise! At least it'll be a peaceful rain-like noise... like meditating in the warm peaceful rain in Hawaii... like the soothing sounds of a baby's white noise machine... riiiiiight! 

No Sew Tutu

When I saw this easy tutorial for a no sew tutu at Treasures for Tots on Pinterest, I knew I had to make one for my niece.

And when I saw tulle on sale at Hobby Lobby, I knew that was a sign. I went with dark purple, white and a shiny pinky purple. I was so excited to get started that I didn't take a single picture along the way. Doh!

I found some measurements online that a 4T was 21 inches. So, I made the tutu part 21 inches with 12-15 inches of extra length of ribbon on each end. The ribbon was the white ribbon left over from hanging my air plant. I strung 6 dark purple, 3 white, 1 pinky purple, repeat. The purple and white were very soft. The pinky purple was rougher and stiffer and scratchier so I didn't want to use a lot of it. It's hard to tell in the picture below, but it adds just enough sparkle to glam up the tutu just a little.

I delivered it to her at my sister's homecoming. The end result? She loved it! She also wouldn't stand still long enough for me to get a good picture of it. So, this is what you get.

And for the record, I stocked up on a bunch more tulle. I'm going to make more for my friends' girls because I enjoyed making it so much. Maybe I'll document it better next time. Also, next time I'm going to attempt to use elastic so it can last longer.

Felt Letters

I've been lusting after some adorable felt stuff on Etsy lately. Specifically, I was loving the letters. E is starting to learn some letters and the bright colors are great too. They are really expensive though. I mean, really. So,  I convinced myself that I can totally make my own. And, I can. And, I did.

I admit, this took me about three weeks to do. I'd do a letter or two each night when I had time. It's a craft that needs to be saved until after children are in bed because rambunctious 18 month olds and mommies with needles in hand is not a good combo.

But, it was super easy.

I spent a little time on Word searching for a good blocky font. I chose super basic Arial Black, used all caps and bolded it. My font size was 330 pt. This meant I could get 2-3 letters per page. I printed them in a light gray so I could just see them to cut out and to not use up all the black ink in my printer. I did all the printing and paper cutting at once.

I had 9 colors of felt that I wanted to use. I don't think you could have 26 different colored letters, but I could be wrong. To cut out each letter, I taped the paper letter to the felt. I even used more tape than necessary because cutting through the tape ensured that I was cutting good lines. 

I finished one letter at a time. First, I cut two of each letter. And then I used matching embroidery floss to sew up the edges. This could be fancied up with contrasting colors, light/dark colors, or whatever pleases ya! I stuffed some poly fill in each letter as I went. I tried to use a little strategery with the sewing. For example, I'd start at the top or bottom of the E, then sew around the legs so I was left with just the back open. That enabled me to wait until I got to the very last side to do the stuffing. Shapes like the S and the Q weren't quite as easy to strategize. 

Three weeks later, I finished up my 26 letters. Are they perfect? Heck no! But they still look pretty darn good. And E won't know any difference. 

Then, in a fit of craft craziness. I decided that he needed a bag for his letters. So, this happened. 

And it holds his letters perfectly. The square on the bottom is 5in x 5in and it's about 7.5in tall. 

Best of all, this used eleven 8.5x11 sheets of felt. At $0.25 each, that's a whopping $2.75 in felt and maybe a couple dollars worth of embroidery floss and poly fill, but I actually already had that stuff. Compare that to at least $30 for a set of letters on Etsy. Blam! 

A Toddler Activity

Even though I work a 9-to-5, I like to pretend that I'm a craftastic stay-at-home mom. I imagine that SAHMs make lots of fun, crafty activities that keep their toddlers busy playing and learning all day long. Of course, I have no idea what SAHMs actually do. As far as I know, they could be sitting around all day eating Twinkies while the kids play with matches. But, I prefer to think they're craftastic.

So, this is my shot at a SAHM-ish toddler activity. 

I have a collection of clear plastic containers-- water bottles, juice bottles, snack containers. I filled them up with various things-- some noisy, some pretty. E has glittery water, water with beads, bottles with just beads and with bells, ribbons, sequins... you name it. They're dirt cheap and disposable when he bangs up the bottle/container too much. And, the possibilities are endless-- every time I take a trip down the craft aisle I get more ideas. 

For added safety, I'd suggest putting a little adhesive around the cap once the bottle is ready. You don't want your little ones getting those caps off and eating whatever treasures you've put on the inside. 

Beads in Water

Mini Gold Bells

Ribbons (for first birthday presents) and beads